April 2021 – Pendragon Shoes

April 16, 2021August 23, 2021

History of Pendragon year by year – 1995

Here’s a little dose of Brisbane history, in the bygone era of the 90s, Brisbane Riverside housed numerous bars, one of which was the dramatically titled Grand Orbit. Once a month they hosted fashion parades that were focused on showcasing local labels, an opportunity we seized.

We created a trifecta of sets of shoes, the singular, unifying theme of them all: colourful and flashy. We have video but the photos on the night weren’t great….too much smoke machine on stage!

The photoshoots afterwards were great though. Photographed by Ros Baynes of Tea Party Portraits (still going in Brisbane).

Space Patrol: Pulp Sci-fi inspired and with all the flair. Suede boots with spacey symbols and matching vests.

Bug: Jitterbug (Black and White), Stinkbug (purple and green)and Toadstool (Red and white). Unfortunately only the Black and white photos survived.

Purrr: Suede platform zip up boots with sheepskin fur cuffs.

Space boots — Space Patrol 1995 photographed near the Gasworks Newstead by Ros Baynes

bug shoes and bag — Bug shoes photoshoot New Farm park – photographed by Ros Baynes

Bug shoes — Bug photoshoot New Farm park – photographed by Ros Baynes

Purrr boots — Purrr photographed at Teneriffe
by Ros Baynes

Later that year we made boots for a photoshoot at the Ashton circus, again photographed by Ros Baynes.

Ring master boots — 1995 Astons circus Ringmaster photoshoot by Ros Baynes

Ashton Circus photoshoot featuring circus boots. Photographed by Ros Baynes

April 8, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year – 1994

This year saw us making our very first exhibition! Metamorphosis. The nature themed pieces we created this year very much set the tone for our future work. At the centre of this exhibition were the 5 sculptural shoes representing the stages of the life of the shoe. The first three were inspired by the life cycle of a caterpillar: pupa, chrysalis, adult butterfly, then, slightly straying from caterpillars, the rather grim demise was fashioned after the appearance of Cicadas on tree trunks. This was the death of the shoe. Then, by absolute happenstance, Adrian stumbled upon a phoenix theme, so rather than succumb to mortality, we bookended the series with the arisen phoenix

Bankrolled by an Arts Queensland Grant, we had the luxury of being able to toy and experiment with the shoe as an art form, drawing out and focusing on organic shapes and forms. That playfulness of form and shape wasn’t purely aesthetic, we made technical breakthroughs with leather dying, embossing and moulding- as showcased by our “Prince of Autumn Leaves”, “metamorphosis 4, Drought and “Shoes of the Gods”. We experimented with wood carving heels and draped them in exotic skins.

The pieces were performed at a beautiful inner-city ball room in Elizabeth Street Brisbane, choreographed by our dear friend Alex. Each pair of our creations was worn onstage with costumes and props (one memorable prop was a fully grown carpet snake wrangled by the lovely Tonia). We then toured it to Cairns for a display at the iconic Crackerbox Palace store. (Which is still there!)

Metamorphosis has a twofold meaning for us: the embodiment of the nature theme, but also our evolution artistically and technically.

Other creations in this exhibition included the Harvest boots, Mermaid Shoes Redback Spider shoes and Temptation.

Caterpillar shoes — Metamorphosis of the shoe – stage one – caterpillar

Adult butterfly shoe — Metamorphosis stage 3 – adult shoe

Death of the shoe cicada shoe — Metamorphosis of the shoe-stage 4 – the death of the shoe

Phoenix sandals — Metamorphosis of the shoe – stage 5 – phoenix rising from the ashes

Prince of Autumn Leaves shoes — Prince of Autumn Leaves – now in the Powerhouse Museum

Redback spider shoes — Redback Spider Shoes

Drought boots — Drought Boots – embossed dyed leather

April 2, 2021

The History of Pendragon year by year – 1993

black and whitezigzag shoes and red and black jazz shoes

1993 was a huge year for Pendragon. It started with an enquiry for 1000 boots from a Japanese retailer who visited our stall at Cairns markets in North Queensland. This was way beyond our means….and still is! But it made us take it all a bit more seriously. We applied for government assistance and were accepted into the SEVS/NEIS scheme. Self Employment Venture Scheme( a loan to be paid back in 3 years) and the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (a year of support from the government like the unemployment benefit with a business course included).

Because of this financial incentive, we opened a shop above Elizabeth Arcade in Brisbane City. Initially sharing the huge studio with Two Blue Fish (Iconic Brisbane clothes brand). This sparked an amazing collaboration in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.

Dalliance was an outdoor fashion parade extravaganza in May 1993 , featuring an ensemble of designers: Two Blue fish, Talamasca leather and, yours truly, Pendragon Boot Company. The parade’s stage was at a freshly opened Ric’s, on the new Brunswick Street mall. We created a range of historically influenced shoes and boots to accompany Two Blue Fish’s luscious clothes and Talamasca’s edgy steampunk leather wear. It was an amazing night and attracted hundreds of people to Ric’s bar and the surrounding businesses.

The gorgeous artwork here is the poster for the event, designed by amazing poster designer Steven Lee.

Later that year we were successful in receiving an arts grant from Arts Qld to develop a range of art shoes. More on that next week….